Help Wanted: Pulse & Functional Respiratory System Required
The Supreme Court has struck down a Biden administration vaccine-or-testing mandate for large employers, clearing the way for a big business-approved additional 6500 Americans to die from contracting Covid-19 in the coming months.
It could have been worse. Justices Gorsuch and Roberts switched sides in ruling for a similar mandate affecting healthcare workers at facilities receiving federal funding.
What’s lost in these you-win-one/you-lose-one rulings was the underlying debate over whether the executive branch can create regulations based on non-specific congressional actions.
The conservative “traitors”--as they’re being dubbed in far right circles today– effectively decided that now was not the time to impose a mandate on Congress requiring spelled out regulations for agencies to act upon rather than generalized areas of authority.
That’s a good thing, since the Congress can’t muster votes on much of anything beyond funding the military and extending the debt ceiling just before the government has to shut down.
This debate before the Supreme Court about executive branch rule making isn’t over. And should the majority of Federalist Society//Koch Companies justices find another case with less obvious immediate impact to rule upon, the libertarian goal of an essentially regulation free society will be within reach.
Think about it. Cigarettes could become fashionable, as tobacco companies will once again be able to freely recruit younger generations with mass and social media advertising. Leaded gasoline –which is still available for use in aviation– might be tomorrow’s new miracle additive, rebranded as CBD Econo-Gas. While these examples are hyperbolic, I hope you get the idea.
Tough issues concerning health like regulating and testing nutritional supplements –a no man’s land eagerly exploited by con men like InfoWars’ Alex Jones– will never see oversight because there will always be enough nut cases on Capitol Hill to keep oversight from getting 60 votes in the Senate.
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The San Diego Unified School District has informed parents about the likelihood of temporary measures caused by a shortage of teachers well enough to come to work. Administrators may take over classrooms, students may be working in a study hall environment, and instructional time could be replaced with DIY projects.
Should infection rates continue to soar, individual schools will be allowed to declare a COVID Day (similar to a snow/heat day) shutdown if the principal wishes to declare in person instruction to be unsafe.
Thankfully, we won’t have to worry about people’s freedumb being taken away as schools will mostly do their part in the war for universal Covid infections rather than face angry mobs.
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A politician with a pulse, maybe?
KUSI is doing some advance work on behalf of former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer rollout of yet another gubernatorial campaign.
Building on the success of his 8% share of the vote in the recall, Faulconer has been posting Mean Tweets in response to Gov. Newsom’s ideas about the upcoming budget surplus, the legislature’s efforts to create a single-payer healthcare program, and homelessness.
The former Mayor may still have a pulse, but it would appear that he has memory challenges when it comes to actions he took during his most recent stint in office. And since he’s relying on KUSI News to handle early publicity, Faulconer will be safe from any annoying questions.
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No Lungs Required – The Republican National Committee has told the Commission on Presidential Debates that it's preparing to require presidential candidates to refuse to take part in those debates.
It makes perfect sense, right? This is the party that had no platform in 2020. It’s most prominent candidate already rejects the need to influence voters, since the election will be declared rigged if he doesn’t get enough votes.
And they’re taking inspiration from a recent special election for a House seat in a very Democratic South Florida district where the GOP candidate has refused to concede despite the other candidate winning 79% of the vote.
Not the Onion – For Fox News consumers who’ve moved beyond horse tranquilizers and nutritional supplements for fighting COVID.
Email me at WritetoDougPorter@Gmail.com